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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28650495">Blood of the enemy, sleeping draught for the weak</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardouring/pseuds/ardouring'>ardouring</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cultivation in Modern Setting, Eventual Relationships, Exorcisms, Folklore, Humour, M/M, Magical Realism, Modern Cultivation, Multi, Otome - Freeform, Transmigration, Video Game Mechanics, Wuxia, accidentally rewriting the plot, does accidentally seducing everyone count as a stat?, eventual polyamory</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:46:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,886</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28650495</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardouring/pseuds/ardouring</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Osaki Shotaro finds himself in the body of Lee Donghyuck after dying from a car crash in his original body. Only problem? Donghyuck is the scum villain in an terribly written otome game.</p><p>So now watch him maneuver in the world of modern exorcism, trying not to get killed by the fangs of a flesh eating pitcher plant, or worse, the blade of the main character. (or getting caught into a stupid plot hole!)</p><p>Wait! What do you mean the main cast is flirting with him?</p><p>Or, the tale of an aggressive intern, a stressed transmigrator, a cheerful council secretary, a haughty CEO and a tired office worker team up together to save their district. </p><p>Alternatively, </p><p>Lee Donghyuck finds a boy, loses him, and finds him.</p><p>Not necessarily the same one, or in the same order.</p><p>And thankfully not in the same day.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>00 line-freeform, Huang Renjun/???, Osaki Shotaro/???, eventual polyamory - Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>The Red Fiesta</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Blood of the enemy, sleeping draught for the weak</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>HEY! i wanna say a big thank you for the mods of roulette fest, and your chillness made this a very relaxing fest letting us write whatever the hell we want! (even if you do resort to capitalism sigh)</p><p>this work was inspired by several isekai novels, or really bad otome games, and my love for all these themes and tropes of magic and cultivation and [waves hands] messy game logic slashed with creepy murder music (half of this is red velvet)</p><p>some general warnings is that things may get a little creepy but not in the first chapter, thought there is a mention of an axe</p><p>so, have fun!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There is a new boy in town. Donghyuck wants him.</p><p>“Of course you do.” Yeri snorts from her spot on the sofa, focused on her game. “You just want to get something out of <em>Na Jaemin</em>.” </p><p>She narrowly avoids the pillow Donghyuck hurls her way. They do not speak of him.</p><p>“What’s up with both of you anyways?” Yeri asks, her voice taking on a softer tone. </p><p>Donghyuck looks away pointedly.</p><p>Of course there’s something between them. A tale, neatly slotted between the space of a horror story and an urban legend.</p><p>Scene start. </p><p>Think, red cheeks. A disarming smile with too many teeth. The glint of a sharpened stone. Think of a boy kneeling, hovering above the body, knife in hand. There is too little blood left for this murder done in cold fury. The boy with the haunting smile looks down at him, grins with teeth that are sharp enough to cut through flesh.</p><p>He lazily traces his hand along a sceptre.</p><p>“<em>Oh no</em>. You’ve done it again.”</p><p>Now is not the time for stories. The important matter is that there is a new boy in town, and Donghyuck wants him, and by hook or by crook, he will get him. </p><p>(In what way?)</p><p>(“You’ve always gotten what you’ve wanted.” The ghost of a grin. A phantom touch. The burning and the smell of petrol. Donghyuck shakes away that memory.</p><p>After all, if he truly got what he wanted, would he be standing here today anyway?)</p><p>***</p><p>The new boy is pretty. He is short, and he looks nothing but innocent, body engulfed in a hoodie. But his stance is strong, and his words are defensive, harsh and witty. He stands straight, and refuses to be a victim. </p><p>That’s a good attitude to have in this town.</p><p>Donghyuck will have fun with this one.</p><p>Na Jaemin whispers to him behind the bushes that day. His face is close enough that Donghyuck can smell the mint he chews, and if Donghyuck leans in a little bit more, he’s sure he can taste it.</p><p>“Say, did you hear? His natural sixth sense is higher than yours now. All that training and fighting, Donghyuck, and you still can’t beat someone who was born lucky.” </p><p>He leaves with a smirk on his face, brushing the fish charm attached to his lapel.</p><p>He glowers at the spot Jaemin touched. Boo hoo. Na Jaemin ruins all his fun. He’s starting to hate this guy.</p><p>Donghyuck’s energy is the strongest in this realm. A sixth sense can only sense trouble, not get someone out of it.</p><p>***</p><p>
  <em>Scene pause. You know how this story goes.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Depending on where you began, this is still a love story. If you can call a love story a sad tale of broken promises, heartfelt lies that begin from nowhere and spread to everywhere. There is a murder in between, of some sort of disease that stemmed-</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You will hear this more than once. This is not the time for that story. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Move on now. Scene resume.</em>
</p><p>***</p><p>Shotaro wakes up in a room he's never been in before.</p><p>On second thought, maybe he has. There’s something eerily familiar about this room, and Shotaro can’t quite put his finger on it. But he’s not in his home, where the blankets are soft and fluffy, and there is breakfast waiting for him. This room is chilling to the bone and drowning in red, and for a second he thinks he is in a nightmare, except the bed sheets are wrinkled and there is a certain softness in them only achieved by sleeping in them long enough. A quick look tells him that there are stacks</p><p>He looks down at his hands. <em>Fuck</em>. He turns them around, noticing the amount of bumps and scrapes left on them. These are not his hands! The last thing he remembers before passing out is the cold screen of his phone, the anger as he rages at a shitty game where he got killed far too fast for his liking. He remembers a car, the blinding lights, tense and worried faces—</p><p>Maybe he's in the hospital!</p><p>He turns to the side, and there is an axe on the bedside table, glistening and shining. The metal reflects a beam of light, harsh enough to hurt his eyes, sharp enough to slice his head off. Pinpricks of fear jolt up his spine, and he freezes, not daring to move an inch.</p><p>On second thought, never mind. This isn't his world, and Shotaro feels the most panicked he's ever felt since he woke up. The helplessness crashes down in waves as he wonders about how he is going to get back, until he realises that he <em>cannot</em> go back. Not when his body is lying dead on a random street.</p><p>Thankfully, he has watched enough movies to know not to scream out loud. He belatedly muses that there is no blood on the axe. He prides himself in knowing that if he was transmigrated into another world, at least he won't point and say, "This is such a realistic set up! Such a cool costume you have? Haha, now where are the cameras?"</p><p>First matter of business: Where is he? Who is he?</p><p>He glances around the room. The bed is draped in red sheets, pillows embroidered with crimson thread. The bedside table is clean, axe arranged neatly next to several belongings. There are trunks and boxes stacked up against the shelves filled with mysterious liquids that bubble and fade into different colours. </p><p>The most impressive thing to him are the walls. They are lined with weapons straight from an armory, and Shotaro would be impressed if not concerned for the array it holds. There are swords, arrows, crossbows, and even more daggers, bejeweled and encased. Scrolls of calligraphy are mounted on the walls, talking about the honour of killing demons.</p><p>Jewels the size of apples. Weapons able to slice the heads of demons. Potions lining the shelves. He realises with a sickening sensation, that he knows what this world is. There is an eerie silence that pierces through.</p><p>There is a mirror by the side. He slowly gets up and inches towards it, bit by bit. He doesn't want to believe that he's in this world. Anything but this one.</p><p>His appearance is shown in the mirror. </p><p>Fuck. <em>Fuck</em>. He's going to die once more.</p><p> </p><p>[System Start! </p><p>Welcome to the world of The Red Fiesta!</p><p>Player Name: Osaki Shotaro</p><p>Player account successfully created. Player successfully bound in Character. ]</p><p>He glances up. This pop up appears next to his character, shimmering a light blue, as if it hasn't dumped the biggest revelation in his life. How the hell does he have a built in Siri just like the original game?</p><p>[Character Name: Lee Donghyuck</p><p>Exorcist Title: Haechan</p><p>Role: Scum Villain of The Red Fiesta</p><p>Special features: highest energy level in Chijin]</p><p>But more importantly, WHY IS HE THE SCUM VILLAIN IN THIS SHITTY GAME?</p><p>***</p><p>Here's the gist. In the early of this year, one of the shittiest games (in Shotaro's biased opinion) was released, taking the world by storm. Some praised it for its unorthodox setting, while others bashed its superficial and one dimensional characters. Shotaro was obviously the latter crowd, but he still spent time and money on this stupid game! Suffered through millions of unnecessary fan service scenes! Read through hundreds of plot holes! Sat through the villain's insufferable, tacky perception of bullying!</p><p>So if someone was to ask him, the reader plagued by the curse of hate reading, what The Red Fiesta was about? On the inside, he would explode words of profanities! Disgusting! Don't play it! Cliché upon cliché wrapped in the pretty packaging of the wonders of modern exorcism!</p><p>Alas, his calmer side, nice and cuddly will say: It's decent! The main character is refreshing! The world has such interesting worldbuilding! </p><p>Now let this poor reader introduce this tale to you!</p><p>Huang Renjun was an interesting main character for an otome game. Every protagonist must have a sad backstory, you see. Born into poverty? Check. Insanely pretty? Check. Bullied his entire childhood? Check. But unlike the other main characters, he was smart and used his brain (for once), and he was nothing short of snarky and witty. A poor boy born with an extremely high sixth sense, he soon made his way to Chijin to develop his skills. Once reaching Chijin, he unwillingly got roped into working for Na Jaemin, spending his time as a demon pest control exorcist.</p><p>But alas, every story will have a scum villain! Enter, the scummiest of scum, Lee Donghyuck! Jealous of Huang Renjun's naturally high sixth sense, he tries his best to take down him and the whole office. There was also the addition that Donghyuck hated Na Jaemin for unknown reasons, and by extension that meant the whole exorcist office! (What, never heard of otome game politics?)</p><p>But! You must remember! Especially if you are the villain! That no matter how much you hate someone, you can never, ever, lock the Main Character in a room with a deadly poison! It's like giving him a free scholarship! An easy way for him to take revenge for you! His love interest will charge in and swear to avenge him, except by then, you'll be easy food for the wolves by the main protagonist's hands.</p><p>Here's the plot twist: Renjun is half fox demon.</p><p>He's immune to poison, and this incident causes his magical seal to break. Why is there a magical seal? Shotaro doesn't know either, ok? The main cast revolts against Donghyuck, and he dies a painful death or is exiled in every ending. Renjun gets kidnapped by a bunch of demons to make him a demon king, and by the power of love and kindness and some fairytale bs, controls his power to unite both the demons and the exorcists. He and his love interest live happily ever after, while Donghyuck is at best exiled, or worse case, dead in a ditch.</p><p>Why is his character ending so tragic? No fair! His motivations are so one dimensional, with barely any characterization at all.</p><p>Shotaro is too busy grumbling to notice that someone else is in his room.</p><p>A figure looms above him, dagger in hand. He looks up, and the feeling of fear comes up again.</p><p>[New Character!]</p><p>The system unhelpfully chimes, pop up next to her character.</p><p>[Character Name: Kim Yerim</p><p>Exorcist title: Yeri</p><p>Role: Exorcist, Lee Donghyuck's close friend and housemate</p><p>Ability: great sense of smell]</p><p>She stares at Shotaro, but there is no fondness in her gaze that tells him of their closeness. Is he doomed to already dying on the first day?</p><p>"You're not him." Her stare is hollow, and she inches closer and closer to where he's standing. The blade glints in the sunlight, the ruby pattern in it gleaming. He feels cold sweat dripping down his back.</p><p>She pauses. Turns. Pockets the dagger.</p><p>"But you don't smell a possessed ghost. You don't smell malicious either. You smell distant. Are you a traveler, lost one?" Her face softens, and she moves to sit down on the bed.</p><p>Not even ten minutes, and he's already caught to not be from this world?</p><p>Yeri laughs at his expression, seemingly reading his thoughts.</p><p>"Relax. I'm Yeri, and I'm Donghyuck's housemate. I can smell you out, but I promise you no one else will be able to. Now. Your name, please?"</p><p>Yeri seems to trust him, and he knows that Donghyuck's life here is filled with death at every turn. He doesn't need to make things harder for himself but throwing himself into death's way on his first day. "...Shotaro."</p><p>"Welcome to Chijin, Shotaro. We've all heard tales of lost travelers borrowing bodies. I can only hope you keep my friend safe. Donghyuck has many enemies, and fewer friends." Her voice drops back to her scary whisper.</p><p>She walks out, leaving Shotaro even more terrified than before.</p><p>(He remembers that Yeri was killed by Donghyuck, arrows piercing through her body. If you can call a body a mangling piece of flesh.)</p><p>***</p><p>Shotaro grabs paper and starts listing everything he knows about The Red Fiesta and Chijin, the system pulled out and ready to be grilled. He's already met the rest of the residents of the Red Mansion, and they were more than willing to explain about the world he was in. Yeri was more than helpful, reintroducing the whole area to him (so big it could fit his entire apartment back in his previous life), explaining to the rest of his housemates of the mansion of this new traveler. At worse they had only seemed nonchalant, as if a dimension hopping soul was a daily occurance. Joy was friendly, letting him pet her flesh eating spiders. He had screamed in terror, crying hysterics when it had popped up in his face, hairy legs sprawling all over, before Joy had restrained it with a sheepish smile.</p><p>Though, he suspects, in a world where even such mysteries could exist, anything was possible, isn't it?</p><p>He had conveniently left out the part where this was a game, and that he's memorised almost all the endings on how many times he had played the game.</p><p>He notes down four names. Four different people to lead Donghyuck into his many forms of demise.</p><p>Huang Renjun. Na Jaemin. Lee Jeno. Liu Yangyang.</p><p>16 deaths, 23 deaths, 4 deaths, 2 deaths, respectively.</p><p>He's utterly screwed.</p><p>But the rule of playing every game is the same: Have a plan. Stick to it. Don't die.</p><p>Shotaro can't defeat them, at least not at exorcism alone. Some of his deaths were by fatal wounds caused by the manipulation of shensu, and he doesn't think he'll have the courage to fight any one of them.</p><p>The solution comes to him in a flash, imaginary light bulb lighting up above his head.</p><p>Be nice. The real Donghyuck never had to do that in his life! Shotaro will change his fate, one kind act at a time! He's going to hug Renjun's big thighs! He's going to be the nice senior he's always vying to be. Maybe, just maybe, if Renjun is lenient enough, they’ll be nice to him. All he wants is a gentle exile, and a place to stay afterwards.</p><p>He’ll be discreet enough to not trigger any suspicion from then, and then when the time comes, he’ll gladly leave center stage.</p><p>***</p><p>He’s busy celebrating his new plan before he realises. Donghyuck is still an important exorcist. He has to learn how to fight, at least decently enough to defend himself from any demons.</p><p>The tell tale pinging sign of the system has him sighing immediately.</p><p>[Look at the pin on your shirt!!] The system chimes, and he feels the pin on his lapel warm up in response.</p><p>He feels the accessory in between his fingers. It’s a pair of small icons connected by a thin golden chain, dangling below the folds of the lapels. The bigger icon on the left is the symbol of Chijin’s council, a slim red koi dotted with gold accents, movement frozen in time.</p><p>Chijin, for unknown reasons not stated in the game (he grits his teeth at improper plot development), has been a hotspot for demons and exorcists alike, due to its rampant resources of Shensu. Unable to take the sudden influx of demons and exorcists claiming territory in a previously barren place, a council was set up by the most skilled people in the area, allocating different tasks to different members, some for establishing trade routes, others for exorcism and peace. Each member owns a pin similar to his, the council symbol and personal mark proudly worn on the left lapel near to the heart.</p><p>The smaller icon on the right lies Donghyuck’s exorcist seal.</p><p>The small sun shines brilliantly under the light.</p><p>[ ...This is now your symbol, you know that?]</p><p>Shotaro ignores it. He feels like an imposter, thrown suddenly into this world with a second chance at living. He should be grateful for this, but the only thing in his mind is fresh blood and cold cement and the pitter patter of the rain, and now he remembers Donghyuck’s deaths as clear as day, of the poles and swords, the pinprick of patience dripping into his soul. Barely an afternoon, just one, and he’s been tossed in the shoes in the person everyone wanted dead, making plans just to survive, and on top of that he has to act like him, and carry out exorcism like what the council wants—</p><p>Wait. Exorcism? He needs to fight monsters? By himself? Demons that haunted him when he was a small child, and now he needs to exorcise them?</p><p>[Exactly! That’s why you can’t just only defend yourself! This humble system will teach you how to fight and exorcise, as simple as playing a game! 100% success rate!]</p><p>Shotaro opens his mouth to argue with that, before the disaster tell tale sign of the ping starts again.</p><p>[New mission!</p><p>Beginner’s task: fight your first demon, the jeweled spider!</p><p>Rewards: ???</p><p>Accept/Reject?]</p><p>Wait? This early? Already? At least give him some sort of mental preparation! He doesn’t want to fight so early yet, damnit! Hey, why is it not listening!</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>some definitions:<br/>Sixth sense: the ability to detect when demons or panaroma are near you, especially emotions such as bloodlust.<br/>Shensu: the amount of “mana” you have in you to use spells. can be channelled into weapons for more efficient strikes. the more shensu, the more power packed into each spell<br/>Cultivation: the ability to manipulate energy. the higher the cultivation, the more forms and abilities able to be reached by the same energy. (example: energy can now be used to heal different poisons and wounds, able to manipulate energy to form a slash and a strike</p><p>will be back with socials after reveals!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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